Why are Americans against eating insects?

Some scientists are worried about food shortages in the future as the population grows, and food production is not growing fast enough to keep up (Tao and Li 2018). This has led many scientists to look at insects as potential replacements or supplements to current livestock because insects are much more efficient, cheap, and environmentally friendly to raise than traditional live stock and have more protein per mass (Hartmann and Siegrist 2017). However, the trouble is to get Americans and other Westerners to accept insects into their diet because they are the largest consumers of meat in the world, and to be able to do that we need to understand the Western aversion to eating insects. (Schuursman 2014) According to my research, the most likely factors that cause United States citizens to have an aversion to eating insects are because they see insects as pests to their crops, because insects look alien and scary to them, and, or because eating insects is not convenient, cheap, or socially accepted (Bellisle 2006). My study showed that there is a positive relationship between interest in trying insects and likelihood of buying them from the store, between not seeing insects as a pest and interest in trying insects, someone’s adventurousness and their openness to trying new foods, and the likelihood of eating insects if it was socially accepted and interest in trying insects. My results are important because they show that there are several identifiable factors that determine whether or not someone is interested in trying insects. This shows that by meeting these factors, we can get Westerners to at the very least try insects

How Cultural Perceptions and Food Preparation Affect Westerners View of Insects as Food

There has been a recent push to encourage westerners to introduce insects into their diets. Traditional arguments that stress environmental and nutritional benefits have been largely unsuccessful. This not because people simply find insects distasteful; what people view as an acceptable food choice is culturally dependent, and foods made from novel and unfamiliar ingredients or tools are met with apprehension. What is less known is why insects are viewed as an unacceptable food source in western society. It has been suggested that westerners disgust towards insects is that insects are perceived of as contaminants and as vectors of disease. If westerners are unwilling to eat insects, or food prepared with insects because they are viewed as unhygienic, then we should expect individuals who are less concerned with hygiene to be more willing to eat insects, or food prepared with insects. When surveyed on their hygiene and their willingness to try food prepared using insects, participants that were less concerned with personal hygiene were more willing to eat food made with insects. In order to convince people to introduce insects into their diet one must know why people are so uneager to consume insects

RE-ENTERING AFRICAN-AMERICAN FARMERS: RECENT TRENDS AND A POLICY RATIONALE

Today, there are only about 15,000 black farmers in the United States. Declining by 98 percent since 1920, black farmers have suffered losses attributable to public policy, economic pressures, and racial oppression. All of these factors must be addressed if African-American farmers are to survive. In this paper, we use Census of Agriculture data and a follow-on survey in one Mississippi Delta county to review the current situation of black farmers. We introduce the concept of "re-entering farmers" to suggest that a significant number of black farmers, who are not defined as "farmers" by the Census, still own land and want to farm again. The first section of the paper provides a brief overview of the historical and current trends of black farmers in the United States. The second section discusses Delta County, drawing upon our survey and the Census of Agriculture. The third section discusses the implications of civil rights violations by the former Farmers Home Administration of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Finally, we conclude with a policy recommendation to slow the drastic decline of African-American farmers.Afro-American farmers--Mississippi, Land use, Rural--Mississippi, Afro-American farmers--Civil rights--United States, Afro-American farmers--Government policy--United States, Agriculture and state--United States, Farms, Size of--Southern States, Discrimination in financial services--United States, Agrarian structure--United States--Southern States, Farm Management, Labor and Human Capital, Land Economics/Use,

Geology Across and Under the Western Snake River Plain, Idaho: Owyhee Mountains to the Boise Foothills

This 1-day field trip is a transect across the western Snake River Plain (fig. 1). The western plain is a continental- rift structure, 300 km long and 70 km wide. It is bounded and internally faulted by northwest-trending normal faults. The western Snake River Plain has a different orientation and structure than the eastern plain. The eastern plain is a curious downwarp related to magmatism and extension along the track of the Yellowstone hot spot (fig. 2). The faulted basin of the western plain began forming about 12 m.y. ago, and much of the relief was completed by 9 Ma. This timing corresponds with the passage of the hot spot located to the south about 11 Ma. Wood and Clemens (2002) suggest that softening of the lithosphere by the passing hot spot triggered extension and basin formation. The hot spot passage was accompanied by voluminous rhyolite volcanism to the south and by eruptions of rhyolite at or near the margins of the western plain (Bonnichsen and others, 2004; Perkins and Nash, 2002; Pierce and Morgan, 1992). Northwest of the western plain and in southeastern Oregon voluminous eruptions of the Columbia River and Steens Mountains flood basalts occurred between 16.1 and 15.0 Ma (Hooper and others, 2002a, 2002b; Camp and others, 2003). Earliest Columbia River basalts are as old as 17.5 Ma (Baksi, 2004

Achieving Racial Unity and Oneness Through Biblical Authority and Application

The problem is that secular models for achieving racial reconciliation threaten the unity of Life Church. The true remedy for unity is found in biblical authority and application. The intervention research project addressed this problem by observing the negative impacts of methodologies such as Critical Race Theory and Intersectionality. Seven members of Life Church were recruited to participate in the group study. The first three phases of intervention were replete with survey questions and interviews that ascertained their worldview on understandings of race and how personal experiences have shaped the way they view people. The phase four intervention provided a theological lay out of why racism is grounded in sin and then proceeded to apply systematic biblical texts that addressed partiality and God’s heart for unity and oneness

Fears over the impact of Citizens United may be misplaced

"Doing a Systematic Review: A Student’s Guide." Angela The Supreme Court ruling in the 2010 case, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, has generated one of the largest public outcries of any court decision in recent memory. Perhaps the most pervasive criticism of the case argues that it unleashed a deluge of big money into elections, distorting the political system to favor corporations. However, the actual effect on elections is unclear. Douglas Spencer and Abby K. Wood compare state-level data to test the impact of the decision and find that while spending increased in affected states, the actual ramifications of the ruling are much smaller than many believe

Vertical Variation in Groundwater Chemistry Inferred from Fluid Specific-Conductance Well Logging of the Snake River Plain Basalt Aquifer, Idaho National Engineering Laboratory, Southeastern Idaho

Well logging of electrical fluid specific conductance (Cs) shows that permeable zones yielding ground water to intrawell flows and the water columns in some wells at INEL have highly different chemistry, with as much as a two-fold variation in Cs). This suggests that dedicated pump sampling of ground water in the aquifer may not be representative of the chemistry of the waste plumes migrating southwest of the nuclear facilities. Natural background Cs in basalt-aquifer ground water of this part of the Snake River Plain aquifer is less than 325µS/cm (microSiemans/cm), and total dissolved solids in mg/L units, (TDS) ≈ 0.6Cs). This relationship underestimates IDS for waters with chemical waste. when Cs) is above 800 µS/cm. At well 59 near the ICPP water of 1115 µS/cm (≈670+ mg/L TDS) enters the well from a permeable zone between 521 and 537 ft depth; the zone being 60 ft below the water level and water of 550 µS/cm. At the time of logging (9/14/93) the 1115µS/cm water was flowing down the well, mixing with less concentrated waters and exiting at 600 or 624-ft depth. Waste water disposed of down the injection well at ICPP until 1984 was estimated to have a Cs) of 1140 µS/cm, identical to the water detected in logging. At well OW2, the highest Cs) water (760µS/cm) is in the upper 30 feet of the water column: water from two flow zones below have different chemistry with lower values of Cs. The Site 14 well and USGS 83 show uniform values throughout the water column. The water column in Site 14 is dominated by a downward flow of 50 gal/min probably entering between 475 and 500 ft depth and exiting near the bottom of the well at 700 ft depth. Impeller flowmeter and precision temperature logging are used to define and quantify temperature variations and intrawell flows. At well 59 (depth=657 ft) and OW2 (depth=996 ft), are downward decreasing temperatures in the bottom zones of no flow, suggesting that major flow zones lie beneath the deepest parts of these wells

Natural Degradation of Earthworks, Trenches, Walls and Moats, Northern Thailand

“………..structures of this kind are hidden away securely under the thick overgrowth: thus does nature preserve what man would surely destroy” (from Sumet Jumsai, 1970) We investigate the geometry, age, and history of several enigmatic northern Thailand earthwork entrenchments that are mostly located on hills and could not have held water to form moats. The earthworks are either oval or rectangular in map view; and they typically encircle 0.3-to-1-km2 areas that do not have potsherd debris indicative of former towns. Most trenches are 3-5 m deep with inner walls 4.5-8 m high. Some encircling earthworks are concentric double trenches spaced approximately 10 m apart. Historians have suggested these earthworks enclosed defensible areas where people in outlying villages sought refuge when under attack by neighboring rulers, the Chinese Ho, or the Burmese. We believe that some encircling entrenchments may have been for the capture or containment of elephants. Nearly all of the once near-vertical original walls have degraded to slopes of 32-47°. Fitting calculated curves of the diffusion-based scarp-degradation model to our height-slope data, and assuming most scarps have degraded since the end of La Na Kingdom time A.D. 1558. We derive a diffusion coefficient of 0.002 m2 y-1. Slopes of the rectangular earthwork at Souvannkhomkham, Laos, across the Mekong River from Chiang Saen Noi, are significantly more degraded (approximately 32°), indicating an age of 800-1200 years. Locations of these earthworks are established in hope that they will be preserved as part of the Thai and Lao archaeological legacy